Stories about life on the homestead, spinning, knitting, gardening, caregiving and whatever else comes up.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Ticks

You know what sucks about living alone (in effect) in the country in the spring? When you discover a tick in the middle of your back in the middle of the night. That spot that you cannot reach by yourself, no matter how you contort your body. The tweezer doesn't reach either. You get out the rubbing alcohol, hoping the burn will make the tick back out. Nope, but your back is nicely sanitized! You try going back to bed, thinking you'll call your friend (and neighbor) in the morning. Except you can't get back to sleep knowing there is a tick in the middle of your back. The slightest touch of fabric to your skin makes you think there are ticks crawling on you. You get back out of bed, grab a butter knife from the kitchen drawer, and finally, scrape that sucker off, along with several epidural layers. You figure the new rug burn in the middle of your back won't get infected because your back had been doused in rubbing alcohol. You head back to bed, the Brad Paisley song running through your head.

When our dog had a tick, my daughter smothered it in vaseline and by the time we got her to the vet, it was dead. It still needed a special forky thing to twist it out though. I'm guessing a sore back is preferable to a deceased greasy tick hanging on in there!

Oh that just give me the heebie jeebies. The other week we were morel hunting and on the way home I felt something in my hair. I knew it was a tick but I couldn't get a hold of it. It wasn't till hours later when my husband finally was able to see it on the top of my head. I also found 7 on the dog the same night. I hate ticks!

Annie-I am so glad to have found your lovely blog. I watched the Alzheimer's Project on HBO as soon as it was posted on "On Demand". It was intense and thought provoking, but your segment was my favorite - you and your mom have managed to communicate at a very deep level through her art and your understanding. Your segment illustrated how, even though the mind of the AZ patient may have diminished mental capacity by our standards, there are still beautiful aspects that need to be seen, understood and cherished.

I look forward to reading more of your poetic posts in the future and enjoying your mom's "installations". You are both amazing.

A School Nurse has written the info below -- good enough to share -- And it really works!! I had a pediatrician tell me whatshe believes is the best way to remove a tick. This is great, because it works in those places where it's some times difficult to get with tweezers: between toes, in the middle of a head full of dark hair, etc.

Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick withthe soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20), the tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away.This technique has worked every time I've used it (and that wasfrequently), and it's much less traumatic for the patient and easier for me.Unless someone is allergic to soap, I can't see that this would be damaging in any way. I even had my doctor's wife call me for advicebecause she had one stuck to her back and she couldn't reach itwith tweezers. She used this method and immediately called me back to say, "It worked!"

"It is a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions have ceased to use their hands...this great gift...It is highly likely that a time will come when we shall be so incapacitated and weak that we shall begin to curse ourselves for having forgotten the use of the living machines given to us by God."

Mahatma Gandhi

Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. (Unknown)